During the brainstorming phase for the project, it was decided that a non-verbal approach will be taken when considering both the way the story would be delivered as well as how the player will be taught how to play the game.
This design approach was taken because it was deemed less expensive than having voice over or significant amounts of text. The whole tutorial would be conveyed trough the use of icons.
Our UX designer set to work on the icons and where to better arrange them on the game screen to make them easy for the player to see and understand. Our technical team started working on an implementation solution.
Finally, I was left with creating a level flow chart that would define the core of the tutorial level and help communicate the vision for this non-verbal tutorial.
The building blocks for this simple diagram are as follows:
“LEVEL/LOCATION” block – serves to inform about the location of the player and eventual location changes
“PLAYER RESPONSE” block – what the player does, objective previously communicated to the player
“LOCK” block – also known as hard gate, restricts forward progress until a certain criteria has been met
“KEY” block – status changes to the world or the player that will open a “lock”, permit advance
By using these building blocks the following level flow diagram emerged for our non-verbal tutorial level:
– Marius Anton – Design lead
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